State still does not own bridge

Wednesday

Oct 31, 2012 at 1:06 PM

By GEORGE AUSTIN

By GEORGE AUSTIN

Editor

SOMERSET — While the new Veterans' Memorial Bridge was opened to traffic over a year ago, the state still has not taken ownership of the structure from the construction company because testing still has not been completed, state Rep. Patricia Haddad (D-Somerset) said.

Rep. Haddad said a lot of wind tests have been done on the bridge, but there is other testing that still needs to be completed that will take a little while longer. She said sometimes the draw bridge is opened when nobody is around to test that part of the structure.

Rep. Haddad said a lot of people have been asking her when the bridge is going to be finished.

Rep. Haddad said the Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District is doing a traffic study on an area around Brayton Avenue, Read Street and other side streets in that area where residents have complained about increased traffic since the new bridge opened.

Rep. Haddad said the public will know that the bridge has been accepted by the state when drivers stop seeing the orange cones on the road entering the bridge.

When the bridge work is completed, Rep. Haddad said the town will get several areas of land around the bridge back from the state that have been used for construction staging areas. She said that should happen late next year. Rep. Haddad said there will have to be property that allows the bridge tender to access the area.

Rep. Haddad said the ownership of part of Route 6 that traffic from the Brightman Street Bridge used to empty into will be turned over to the town.

There is currently federal legislation that requires the Brightman Street Bridge to remain in place, but Rep. Haddad said to rehabilitate that bridge to make it safe for pedestrian and vehicular traffic would cost $50 million and said the state does not have the money to do that. She said there have also been discussions to use the bridge for other purposes, but said it could cost $30 million to $40 million to use the bridge for those ideas. She said the bridge will eventually have to be taken down.

Rep. Haddad has filed language in the state's transportation bond bill for funding to pay for taking down the vascule, the part of the draw bridge that goes up, and other pieces of the bridge.

Rep. Haddad also said the LNG permit that Weaver's Cove Energy has is good until 2016, so she would not want to see the bridge taken down until that time, or after Weaver's Cove Energy turns in its permit. Language was put in federal legislation by congressmen James McGovern and Barney Frank to keep the Brightman Street Bridge up so that liquefied natural gas tankers could not go though that area as Weaver's Cove Energy was planning when it was proposing an LNG terminal at the former Shell Oil site in Fall River, just across the river from Somerset..